Twitchy Eye

In fiction, a Twitchy Eye is never merely a facial tic — for some reason, a twitch reveals your state of mind.

The prevailing notion seems to be that an eye twitch denotes insanity, which can apply to a permanently mad person with a permanent tic, or an unstable character whose twitch manifests along with their madness. As such, it usually accompanies a Broken Smile, and sometimes overlaps with Mad Eye.

Of course, there are other emotions that give characters a Twitchy Eye, including anything from extreme annoyance, to horror, to caffeine. so much that * twitch twitch* has become a standard sound effect in anime and manga, as well as a standard anime gesture of slowly raising a clenched fist with a twitching eye. Might be the prelude to a Villainous Breakdown or a Heroic BSOD.

Other times it's not a mood, but an action -- such as lying—that will bring about the twitch.

In Real Life, a twitching eyelid can be sign of emotional instability, but it's usually a sign of tiredness or severe stress.

The film version of Watchmen does this with Rorschach, though sparingly.

Sir Ruber of the movie Quest for Camelot, one of the characters with a permanent tic, starts out with a slight Twitchy Eye that gets worse and worse throughout the film, until his whole face is practically quivering.

Seed of Chucky: Glen, who is the genderless offspring between the eponymous killer doll Chucky and his dollified girlfriend Tiffany, always has a notable twitch in his/her eye whenever he's anxious or goes into an Ax Crazy episode. He also tends to wet his pants.

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky developed facial tics in War and Peace, but that was probably due to a degenerative disease. The way it's written sounds like his personality (he was a curmudgeony sort) was getting the best of him.

The First Law: Glokta's ruined eye (along with his face, sometimes) tends to begin twitching/blinking uncontrollably when he's nervous, lying, or any other time it's inconvenient to look like he's not utterly composed. He Lampshades it in his thoughts, calling it "treacherous jelly."

In the novelization of Resident Evil 0, it's mentioned that Birkin's paranoia has caused him to develop a facial tic. Though, it's a slight subversion because it's actually on the corner of his mouth rather than his eye.

Count Veger in Jak and Daxter gets one when he finds out the Precursors are ottsels.

A twitchy eye is one of the first signs you get that there's something that's not right about Lisa in Silent Hill 1.

Portal 2 gives us a robotic example in Wheatley the Personality Core. He gets damaged early in the game and, from that point until the showdown with the Disc One Final Boss, he has a short circuit that randomly causes him to spasm and give off sparks. Since his body is intended to resemble a robotic eyeball inside a frame, the effect is strongly evocative of a twitchy eye in a human, and even works as Foreshadowing that Wheatley is not as sane as he appears to be.

The OCD-suffering Hannelore of Questionable Content does this when Marten unthinkingly jokes about spreading garbage around her apartment.

This is supposedly the "tell" in poker of the Patterner in Exterminatus Now. To clarify: the Patterner is an Expy of Tzeentch, Warhammer 40,000's god of Magnificent, manipulativebastardry. When he's shown preparing to deal, he has at least five decks of cards floating around him and held in all four hands. And he displays he's bluffing when his eye (which is not only all of his head, but floats around separate from his body) twitches.

Drive: Nosh does this when he learns that he has to go to Tesskil, whose inhabitants, the Tesskans, lost a war with his own species, the Veetans.

Schlock Mercenary had an Ob'enn admiral suddenly sporting a twitchy eye. For a good reason, considering that in the next panel he screamed "The A.I. has gone feral! Nobody said anything about the A.I. being feral!" and the next panel was a nuclear fireball enveloping his last known location.

The main character of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has this as a Character Tic. It becomes very pronounced when he's nervous, almost to the point of being a Tourettes Syndrome tic. In particular, it tends to occur when he's discussing his Arch Enemy Captain Hammer and when his desire for his Love Interest, Penny conflicts with his desire to be a Super Villain. In contrast with the typical use of the trope, the tic becomes noticeably less pronounced the stronger he grows in his Dr. Horrible persona.

Tweek of South Park, in addition to his overall jitteriness, has a perpetually twitchy eye.

In a Simpsons parody of Amadeus Lisa, as Salieri, does this when the emperor declares all music other than Beethoven obsolete, making her schemes against Mozart all for nothing. She then hails a coach for the nearest asylum and rides off, cackling hysterically.

If you pay careful attention, you can see Ned Flanders twitch an eye during "Hurricane Ned" after the rebuilt house falls down, just before he puts his glasses back on and completely loses his shit.

An episode of Futurama ends with a shot of Fry doing this after being forced to destroy his robot Lucy-Liu girlfriend, and then watch Bender start making out with the real Ms. Liu. Or at least her head. It's complicated.

Megatron of Transformers Animated no doubt appreciates Lugnut's unswerving loyalty, especially in comparison with Starscream's constant backstabbing, but once in a while gets a twitching optical sensor when Lugnut overdoes the fawning adulation. "Just...go." * twitch twitch*

In "Swarm of the Century" Twilight Sparkle audibly snaps and develops a twitchy eye when she sees the Parasprites eating Ponyville because of a spell she cast. In "Feeling Pinkie Keen", she develops a Twitchy Eye and evolvesintoRapidash when Pinkie tells her that the Hydra wasn't the doozy she predicted.

"Suited for Success": Rarity earns one of these when she learns the famous fashion designer Hoity Toity is going to be attending her fashion show, and seeing the (tacky and overdone) dresses she made for her friends. She does it again at the end, when Hoity Toity agrees to sell her fashions at his shop, and proceeds to place a big order.

Twilight briefly does this while worrying about whether Princess Celestia will approve of her friends in "A Bird In The Hoof".

The Tick (animation) has the character of Big Shot, a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of The Punisher. He gets all eye-twitchy whenever he shoots, fights, or even says the word "gun". This is indicative of some pretty deep-seated mental trauma, as he is prone to collapsing into uncontrollable sobbing while screaming "Why didn't you love me, Mommy?!"

SpongeBob SquarePants does this when Patrick meets him in his house. "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU PATRICK!"

"Opsoclonus" is a term that just broadly refers to any kind of uncontrolled eye movement. A lateral twitch is specifically called "Nystagmus" and can be a sign of an underlying neurological problem if it persists.